With a powerful turbocharged boxer engine and all-wheel drive grip, the 2015 Subaru WRX appears to have it all.
Yet it’s missing one thing: a rear hatch.
Despite a recent rumor to the contrary, Motor Trend reports that a new WRX wagon (as Subaru calls hatchbacks) is off the table.
Earlier this month, a Subaru official told an Australian journalist that the Japanese carmaker was considering a wagon version of the recently-redesigned 2015 WRX, but Subaru has since refuted that statement, labeling it a misunderstanding.
That’s bad news for people who use their rally-bred performance cars to haul furniture, and there are quite a few of them. Wagons accounted for about half of 2013 WRX sales, while sales of the still-sportier STI broke down to about 2,000 sedans and 1,000 wagons.
While Subaru may lose a significant chunk of WRX sales by canning the wagon, the company says developing a second body style is just too expensive.
Subaru has been selling WRX wagons in the United States since the car first arrived here for the 2002 model year. The STI wagon joined the lineup for the 2008 model year.
Dropping the wagon does seem a bit odd for a company whose signature product is the Outback, and it gives customers looking for a vehicle that is both sporty and practical one less choice.
On the other hand, a sedan isn’t wholly impractical, and Subaru never built a wagon version of the factory rally cars that inspired the WRX and STI.
So while the lack of a wagon may send some potential customers over to their local Volkswagen dealers to check out the 2015 Golf R, Subaru may be able to get by with a sedan-only WRX lineup.
